Kellie Harrington's Olympics is delighted to be finally up and running and she is into a medal fight on Tuesday.
Top seed Harrington, 31, had a bye into the last 16 and looked comfortable in dismissing the Italian lightweight Rebecca Nicoli in Tokyo this morning.
"It's been a bit of a wait," said the Dubliner, who will face Algerian 22-year-old Imane Khelif in the quarter-finals on Tuesday at 3.35am Irish time.
Harrington is a European and World champion but this is her first Games and, as the last irish boxer into the ring, was eager to get going at last.
She had spent exactly a month in Japan, between the training camp in Miyazaki and the athletes' village in Tokyo, before stepping through the ropes for competitive action.
"I’ve been a bit anxious to get started, but it’s been great to support the rest of the team," Harrington said after winning a unanimous victory at the Kokugikan Arena.
"It’s a long wait, it's sticky, it's warm, walking around the village.
"I didn’t really walk around too much, to be honest. You're not really seeing a whole lot - you're seeing our apartment and the food hall.
"I'm living in the food hall - and for a boxer to be able to say they are living in the food hall is something else, like.
"As long as we’ve started that’s the main thing, and I’ve started now, this is going to fly in now.
"Once you get boxing you don’t feel it, it’ll just go, go, go and I’ll be home before I know it sitting at home, eating coffee slices and drinking tea with my two dogs and Mandy.
"If it’s not with a medal it’s not the end of the world. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
"We arrived here on the 30th of June and now it is the 30th of July, so we're a month out here now.
"So it was nice to get going today and get going in a good way. Happy days.
"This is a great journey but this is not the destination – this is just part of my journey."
Harrington had to be disciplined and pick her moments to attack against the southpaw, who wanted to draw her Irish opponent onto her.
She did so successfully, comfortably winning the first and second rounds by picking off the Italian as she advanced. Strangely, the Chinese judge awarded Nicoli the last round, but it meant nothing.
"I feel great," Harrington declared. "I feel like I’ll be able to go in and talk about the next opponent - well, not right now, but later on. To move forward.
"I’m looking forward to speaking to my own club coach, Noel Burke. He’s the first person I always contact after I box so I’ll be looking forward to talking to him.
"He gives me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so I’ll be looking forward to that and getting tactics off him for the next opponent.
"She’s a tricky southpaw. The tactics were to try and be first, to try and draw her out so she’ll throw and then I can counter and that’s what we did, we had to stick to it but patience was key."
Harrington added: "She normally is the counter puncher. I had never seen her, both the coaches were telling me that normally she's a counter puncher.
"That was the plan and we carried out the plan. I enjoyed it, that’s what it’s all about - as long as I'm getting out there and enjoying it."
Asked if she was excited about having a medal fight to prepare for now, Harrington replied, "Yes, I am," before laughing: "I won’t say excited, because I don’t know who gets excited to get punched in the face, but I’m happy!
"You're in the Olympic Games, everybody who is here is top drawer.
"We are all elite. There's no easy fights out there. You know, we've had a hard graft to get here as well.
"There's no easy fights and every fight is a hard fight and every fight is a potential gold medal fight. Just take one step at a time.
"I don’t know who my next opponent is. They're in the ring now but I won’t look at it.
"I didn’t look at the draw. I let them (the coaches) worry about it."
